0:00 The price to launch one kilogram of anything into the heavens just fell from eighteen thousand dollars to fourteen hundred.0:10 One.0:11 Thousand.0:12 Four.0:12 Hundred.0:13 Last week, we were outraged that mortals pay for bottled water.0:18 Now we find out they're paying sixty million dollars for a single seat on a trip to see the stars we put there!0:28 ZEUS!0:29 ARE YOU HEARING THIS?!0:31 Okay.0:31 Okay.0:32 Deep, divine breaths.0:34 Here's the dispatch.0:35 The entire business of leaving this planet just went completely insane.0:42 They've created two tiers of cosmic tourism.0:46 First, there's the budget option.0:49 I can't even say it.0:50 The "budget" option is a suborbital flight.0:54 You go up, you see the curve of the Earth, you float for a few minutes like a startled pufferfish, and you come back down.1:05 The price for this little jaunt has dropped from four hundred fifty thousand dollars to a mere two hundred thousand.1:15 A bargain!1:16 They call this "broadening the customer base." Broadening it from the ten mortals who own private islands to the few hundred who only own private jets.1:30 It's a fire sale for the fabulously wealthy.1:34 But that's just the appetizer.1:36 The main course?1:38 A trip to the International Space Station.1:42 That'll be sixty million dollars.1:45 Per person.1:46 For a week in a glorified tin can with the best view in the cosmos.1:52 Sixty.1:52 Million.1:53 For that price, you could build a REAL temple in my name.1:58 A big one!1:59 With marble and everything!2:01 But no.2:02 They'd rather pay for a glorified camping trip where the toilet is a science experiment.2:10 And get this—over seventy-four percent of the customers are just what they call "affluent individuals." Not scientists.2:20 Not explorers.2:22 Just rich people who got bored with yachts.2:25 And it’s not just about the trips anymore.2:29 It's about the technology.2:32 The reason the price fell is because their rockets are now… reusable.2:38 They launch, they land themselves back on a floating platform, they refuel, and they go again.2:46 In days.2:47 It used to be a grand, heroic affair to launch one rocket.2:52 A sacrifice!2:53 Now it’s a celestial bus route.2:56 SpaceX, Blue Origin...2:58 they're running a cosmic shuttle service.3:01 And they're not just running trips.3:05 They're building destinations.3:07 Blue Origin is planning something called… Orbital Reef.3:12 A commercial space station.3:15 A hotel.3:15 In the sky.3:16 Slated to open by 2030.3:18 They’re building their own Olympus out of metal and solar panels, presumably with a lobby bar and terrible art.3:28 But that’s not even the final destination.3:32 That’s not the peak of their hubris.3:35 They're going to the Moon.3:38 Yes.3:38 They are planning commercial flights.3:41 To the Moon.3:42 By the mid-2030s.3:44 Package tours to the domain of my sister, Artemis.3:48 I haven't told her yet.3:50 I fear she might turn their shiny little rockets into stags and hunt them across the Sea of Tranquility.4:00 They're piggybacking on NASA's Artemis missions, turning a venture of human exploration into a luxury getaway.4:10 Can you imagine the travel brochure?4:13 "Visit the Moon!4:14 Low gravity, great photo ops, and absolutely no atmosphere!4:19 Bring a sweater." Here's the part that truly curdles my divine ichor.4:26 Decades ago, these mortals signed a treaty.4:29 A beautiful, noble idea.4:32 The Outer Space Treaty of 1967.4:34 It declared space the "province of all mankind." A shared heritage.4:40 A commons for every soul on the planet.4:44 It turns out the province of all mankind has a sixty-million-dollar cover charge.4:51 It has a VIP section.4:53 It has preferred boarding for people who can pay two hundred thousand dollars to feel weightless for four minutes.5:03 The shared heritage of humanity is now just another asset class for the portfolio.5:10 They build their towers of ambition higher and higher, forgetting that the fall is always proportional to the climb.5:21 They are so preoccupied with escaping their world, they’ve forgotten how to live in it.5:29 They reach for our stars, not with wonder, but with a credit card.
